FILE — This combination of July 22, 2010, file photos provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Yu Qin, left, and his wife, Shanshan Du. The former General Motors engineer and her husband were fined and sentenced to prison for stealing hybrid trade secrets from the big automaker. AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Service, File

A Troy couple convicted of stealing hybrid technology trade secrets from General Motors have been sentenced to prison and must pay fines.

Shanshan Du, 54, a former engineer for GM, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and must pay a $12,500 fine. Her husband, Yu Qin, 52, was sentenced to three years in prison and must pay a $25,000 fine.

Du and Qin were found guilty of conspiring to steal hybrid technology trade secrets from GM with the intent to use them in a joint venture with an automotive competitor in China, according to a press release issued by the office of U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

A jury also convicted Du and Qin of unlawful possession of trade secrets.

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“The evidence at trial showed that from December 2003 through May 2006, the defendants conspired to steal GM’s trade secret information,” the release states. “Du, while employed with GM’s hybrid vehicle technology group, provided GM trade secret information relating to hybrid vehicles to her husband, Qin, for the benefit of their private company, Millennium Technology International Inc. (MTI) ...”

Qin and Du jointly owned and operated that company.

“Approximately five days after Du was offered a severance agreement by GM in January 2005, she copied more than 16,000 GM files, including trade secret documents, to an external computer hard drive used for MTI business,” the release states. “A few months later, Qin moved forward on a business venture to provide hybrid technology to Chery Automobile, an automotive manufacturer based in China and a competitor of GM.”

The FBI conducted a search of the defendants’ residence in May 2006 and found “multiple computer devices containing GM trade secret information on several computer and electronic devices located in the defendants’ residence,” according to the release.

“Shortly after the FBI search team left the defendants’ residence, the defendants drove to a Dumpster behind a grocery store where defendant Qin discarded plastic bags containing shredded documents, including GM trade secret information, that were responsive to federal grand jury subpoenas seeking information relating to MTI and hybrid vehicles.”

GM estimates that the stolen documents are worth more than $40 million.

“These defendants stole trade secrets, which General Motors spent many years and millions of dollars to develop, to give an unfair advantage to a foreign competitor,” McQuade stated in the release.

“Stealing trade secrets harms Michigan businesses and costs jobs. We are committed to protecting Michigan’s technology, and we hope that this prosecution will send a message that stealing proprietary information from an employer or competitor is a serious crime.”